Slaraffenland - We're On Your Side

Slaraffenland are a Danish 5-piece who mix post-rock with jazz, folk and pop elements into a sound that comes across as rather excellent in my mind. Their third album was released in the summer of 2009 but is still building momentum and only now starting to gain the recognition it deserves. They are also getting slighty more mainstream acknowledgement as theier label were interviwed on Huw Stephens' Radio 1 show two weeks ago and were spoken about a lot. What sets Slaraffenland apart from other bands of a smilar genre is that they tend to avoid easy discord and dissonance and assembles often-disjointed pieces into something downright serene, even peaceful. But it lacks the spark needed to fully ignite these ideas, to kick up the pleasantries into enlivened flames. This is only their second release to feature vocals, and 'We’re On Your Side' might have benefited from continued muteness, their chants often distracting rather than adding to the atmosphere. Nonetheless this is still an album which is soothing on the ears and altough all the songs are so diverse in instrumentation and beats they all seem to posses the same kind of feel to them. This album mixes upbeat pop beats with melancholy horns and mesmerizingly beautiful chords and lyrics not perfectly but I'm sure this band have it in them, I reckon their next album might be something special.